The registration for #UMAP2026 is now open! See you all in Gothenburg!!

RecSys – ACM Recommender Systems Steering Committee Chair Alan Said (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) Executive Committee Humberto Corona (Spotify, The Netherlands) Sole Pera (TU Delft, The Netherlands) Michael Ekstrand (Drexel Univ...

The Steering Committee brings together current, past, and future General and Program Chairs, along with elected members who have contributed significantly to the conference and community over time.

For the full list of SC members, see recsys.acm.org/steering-com...

This year's organizing committee is doing a lot of thoughtful work to ensure an interesting, inclusive, and engaging conference.

Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

As many members of our community are now preparing submissions across the different tracks, rest assured that preparations for #RecSys2026 are well underway (not to mention #RecSys2027 and #RecSys2028).

Coordinating this meeting is not simple, though. We are in 9 time zones, from UTC−7 to UTC+11, which means some of us are starting very early while others are staying up far too late just to make it work.

It's always more fun to meet face-to-face, but these meetings are still a great chance to reconnect with familiar #recsys peers.

While we usually meet in person during the conference, this virtual check-in is an important moment to discuss the upcoming conference and the broader direction of the #RecSys community.

It's about six months until #RecSys2026, which means the @recsys.bsky.social Steering Committee just held its mid-year meeting.

Call for Industry Track Papers UMAP invites submissions for its Industry Track, a platform designed to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange by showcasing innovative, deployed solutions in user modeling, adaptation, and perso...

⏰ [UMAP2026] Industry Paper submissions deadline is in March 6, 2026 (AoE).

🎯 Present your real-world innovations
🎯 Discuss practical deployment challenges
🎯 Share impactful solutions with the community.

📍 Gothenburg, Sweden, June 8–11, 2026.
👉 Check out the call: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...

Call for Late-Breaking Results and Demos ACM UMAP 2026 invites Late-Breaking Results (LBR) papers as well as Demonstrations (demos) of innovative UMAP-based systems (including research prototypes). LBR papers are expected to present innovati...

💡Had a bold, yet unexplored idea?
💻 Developed an awesome platform for research on user modelling?

Submit to LBR and Demos at UMAP 2026 !

Deadline is March 30th.
Call: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...

@alansaid.com @toinebogers.bsky.social @alainstarke.bsky.social

Many thanks to Cristina Gena and @ludovicoboratto.bsky.social for making this happen!

Just in time for the paper deadline, we received notification that @umapconf.bsky.social has been upgraded to A in the ICore rankings! Check out the CFP www.um.org/umap2026/cal... and the ICore ranking info below!
portal.core.edu.au/conf-ranks/1...
@toinebogers.bsky.social @abellogin.bsky.social

Looking forward to getting the January issues of #CACM and #Interactions in the mail. #UMAP2026 @umapconf.bsky.social @toinebogers.bsky.social @abellogin.bsky.social @acm.org @acm-sigchi.bsky.social @acmsigweb.bsky.social

dl.acm.org/action/showF...

Alan Asaid | asides and soliloquies |

I've received phone calls and voice mails that all seemed to be intended for someone else. The topics were always on something related to translations, often from Russian. I never could figure out what this was about. Until now.

There's a Swedish interpreter, Alan Asaid. alanasaid.com

Occasionally, over the last 15 years or so, I've received invitations to literary events, notifications of awards for literary works, inquiries about my work in relation to the Swedish Author's Fund (Sveriges författarfond), invitations to contribute translations to collections of poems, etc., etc.

2025 had good, sometimes uncomfortable conversations. Heading into 2026 with fewer assumptions and better questions.

Across talks and public conversations, the same questions kept coming back: #sustainability, #accountability, and the longer-term consequences of recommender systems (#recsys).
Seeing this work travel outside academia was a good reminder of how careful we need to be with nuance.

Wrapping up 2025 and realizing it was mostly a year of transitions.

Stepping away from Head of Education role after 6+ years gave me some distance, and a lot to think about in terms of what actually makes change stick. Less about structures, more about continuity, trust, and people.

Are you a PhD student in topics related to User Modelling and Personalization? Check out the #UMAP2026 call for Doctoral Consortium papers!

Submission: March 6, 2026
Notification: March 20, 2026
DC Day: June 8th, 2026

Call: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...

I see @acm.org has added an additional page at the beginning of all papers in the ACM Digital Library. Assuming this is part of the move to #ACMOpen. I wonder if any estimates of how many additional printed pages that will be wasted as an effect of this have been made? Doesn't seem very sustainable.

”Hela samhället måste ställa om i ai-racet – inte bara ingenjörerna” REPLIK. Om Sverige vill vara i framkant räcker det inte att ingenjörerna är redo. Vi måste se till att samhället är det, skriver Alan Said.

REPLIK. Om Sverige vill vara i framkant räcker det inte att ingenjörerna är redo. Vi måste se till att samhället är det, skriver Alan Said.

HCAI Podcast Episode 13 - Human-centered AI with Ben Shneiderman | Human-centered AI @ GU This episode’s guest is Ben Shneiderman, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, co-founder of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, and author of the book Human-Centered A...

New episode out now. We talk with @benbendc.bsky.social about the future of #HCAI, why user self-efficacy still matters, and how design, responsibility, and safety must guide the next wave of AI systems. A deep, wide-ranging conversation with one of the true pioneers of #HCI. hcai.se/podcast/25-1...

Reminder!!!
The UMAP2026 call for full and short papers is out!
Important Dates (AoE)
Abstract submission: January 22, 2026
Paper submission: January 29, 2026
Rebuttal phase: March 2-9, 2026
Notification: March 25, 2026

CfP: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...
For questions: umap2026-papers@um.org

Yeahhhhh 🥳🥳
The UMAP 2026 call for workshops and tutorials is out!!
Proposal Submission: January 22, 2026

For more information 👇
Workshop Website: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...
Tutorial Website: www.um.org/umap2026/cal...
For questions: umap2026-workshop-tutorial@um.org

Lukas Wegmeth, Tobias Vente, Alan Said, Joeran Beel
Green Recommender Systems: Understanding and Minimizing the Carbon Footprint of AI-Powered Personalization
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13001

Hur skiljer sig lyssnandet på musik åt mellan unga och äldre? Det har forskare från Göteborgs universitet, Jönköping University och University of Primorska tittat på när de analyserat 15 år av data från en musiktjänst.

#Datavetenskap #GöteborgsUniversitet #Forskning #Musik

Hi. The data is anonymized. Does not include user names.

Debatt om ai-risk: ”Det är inte vetenskaplig stringens att bara hänvisa till auktoriteter” REPLIK. Bland de allra mest meriterade ai-forskarna finns skilda uppfattningar om riskerna med ai. Att inte redovisa det blir selektivt, skriver Alan Said och Mattias Rost i ett debattsvar.

REPLIK. Bland de allra mest meriterade ai-forskarna finns skilda uppfattningar om riskerna med ai. Att inte redovisa det blir selektivt, skriver Alan Said och Mattias Rost i ett debattsvar.

#SIGIR2025 had 1071 full submissions across all tracks. Considering that a large number of those are on search and IR, this track may very well be the largest outlet for #recsys research. (although, given recent numbers at @neuripsconf.bsky.social and @aaai.org, this may be very well be contested).

This is about twice the number of full paper abstracts submitted to #recsys2025. @recsys.bsky.social